Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Galicia, the Basque country and Catalonia have
often found in Ireland an "inspiring Other" whether for political,
social or cultural reasons. This anthology engages in an intercultural
dialogue which redefines and strengthens the literary bonds among these
communities. A selection of the most prominent Galician, Basque and
Catalan contemporary women poets have their verse recreated in English
by Irish writers. Together they enrich the European literary scene by
celebrating its diversity.

Location

Monday, 25 February 2013

The Heart in Mouth audio competition will be Ireland's first ever poetry prize for original audio poetry.

Entrants will record their best and most heart-felt work and send it as an MP3 file to judges Colm Keegan and Dave Lordan. They will judge the entries based on the strength of the reading as well asthe content of the work.

The winner will receive an Ipod and, along with the two runners up, will be invited to partake in the Heart in Mouth performance poetry showcase along with special guests on Sat April 27th.

Other dates for your diary:April 6th and 16th: Want advice on your writing?Dave and Colm will offer two free editorial advice clinics in Blanchardstown Library.Note: Places are limited so early booking is advised.

April 20th: Closing date for “Heart in Mouth” Poetry competitionApril 27th: Winners showcase event.
The showcase event will also include free talks and workshops by Dave and Colm on the theme of Getting Creative. Again, early booking is advised.

Thursday, 21 February 2013

Kerry
County Council and the Arts Council are seeking applicants for a Writer
In Residence. The Residency is open to writers in all genres, and aims
to have a countywide impact. It is a part-time position (20 hour week - 5
hours of which is for the Writer's own work development) and the
successful applicant will be asked to stimulate greater awareness of the
art of creative writing as well as encouraging more opportunities for
people to engage with the work of writers.

The Writer's
ability to mentor up-coming writers, young people and those interested
in developing their writing skills must be demonstrated.

For more details Kate Kennelly on 066 71 83541 or email arts@kerrycoco.ie

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Ever since West Cork Literary Festival’s inception in the late 1990s,
workshops for adults have been at the heart of the programme.
Encouraging both novice and experienced writers, they cover many areas
of the discipline, from how to get published to how to get past page
one. Our five-day workshops, still quite unique among Irish literary
festivals, provide week-long opportunities for development and intensive
learning not possible in one sitting. Three-day workshops are also
programmed to allow for a shorter but no less intensive learning
experience. Yet another highlight is the Editor-in-Residence whose
one-to-one sessions were tremendously popular in 2012, selling out in
record time.

POETRY WORKSHOP (ALL LEVELS) with James HarpurSONGWRITING with Jimmy CrowleyWHERE DO STORIES COME FROM? THE SHORT STORY with John MacKennaTHE NOVEL - HOW TO GET STARTED … AND HOW TO KEEP GOING with Richard SkinnerPOETRY WORKSHOP (ADVANCED) with Ruth PadelBECOMING A TRAVEL WRITER IN FIVE EASY STEPS with Kevin RushbyMEMOIR AND NON FICTION with Carol DrinkwaterA PROFESSIONAL FINISH with Hazel Orme5-DAY WORKSHOP FOR TEENAGE WRITERS

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Another Short Story Competition. They're coming up thick and fast, like grass in a warm spring day.
This one has been around for years and is free to enter.

Now in it’s 16th year, Waterford County Council’s Arts
Office is pleased to announce that it is currently accepting entries for
the national Molly Keane Creative Writing Award.

The late writer lived, until her death in 1996, in Ardmore, Co.
Waterford. Her first ten novels and four plays were published under the
pseudonym M.J. Farrell. In 1981 ‘Good Behaviour’ became a publishing
sensation for which she was short listed for the prestigious Booker
Prize.

To celebrate this rich literary life, the County Waterford Arts
Office, by kind permission of the Keane family, is inviting entries for a
previously unpublished short story to a maximum of 2000 words.

There
is no entry fee, no age limit and no restriction on the subject matter.

A prize of €500 will be awarded to the winner at a special ceremony
during the IMMRAMA Literary Festival in Lismore, Co. Waterford in June
2013.

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Sponsored by the 1913 Lockout Commemoration, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature,

Dublin City Council, Dublin City Libraries and ICTU

Organised by the Irish Writers' Union in partnership with the Irish Writers' Centre.

James Plunkett was known as one of Ireland's greatest social
commentators. A founder member of the Irish Writers' Union, James
Plunkett's seminal work, Strumpet City, still stands as one of
the great Irish works of the 20th century. This year, it is of particular
importance as it allows the reader to access the story behind the 1913
Dublin Lockout.

Prizes

1st prize: €2,000

2nd prize: €1,000

3rd prize: €500

Winners will be chosen from 9 shortlisted candidates.

In the course of the year, there will be three
separate competitions - each of which will lead to three winning authors
being invited to read their stories at a public reading in the Irish
Writers' Centre. The readings will be presented as the James Plunkett
Readings and the three winning authors promoted as being short-listed
for the James Plunkett Award. There will be a separate guest judge, an
established short story writer, for each of these three competitions.
The guest judge will speak about the stories on the night, about the
short story in general, and give a guest reading from his/her own work. A
fourth guest judge will select the Award winner, runner-up, and
third-placed prize-winner from the nine shortlisted candidates chosen at
the three previous events.

In addition to the prize fund and the chance
to speak alongside an established writer, the winners will be invited
to speak at events organised by the Dublin City Library Service towards
the end of the year as part of their promotion of Plunkett's Strumpet City as the 'One City, One Book' title for 2013.

Competition Deadlines:

First James Plunkett Reading Wed 10 April (Closing date for entries 07 Mar)

Monday, 11 February 2013

2013
is now upon us and for those of us in festie land, June is just around
the corner. We’re now ready to open the floodgates to all you wonderful talented
poetry types once again. If you want to perform your work on
Glastonbury Festival’s poetry stage, then this is your chance. We’re
looking for applications from experienced writers and performers who can leave the Glastonbury audience speechless (in a good way!).

If you think that could be you, then please e-mail
poetryandwords@hotmail.co.uk with your poetry c.v. and 1-3 video and/or audio files of you performing your work. We’re happy to receive either attachments (of a manageable size!) or web links.

We can also provide a snail mail address if you’d rather do things the old fashioned way!

Glastonbury Festival takes place between Weds 26th and Sun 30th JuneApplications close at midnight on Sunday 10th March 2013. Applications received (by post or e-mail) after this date will not be accepted.

Please note that they receive a high volume of applications and are therefore unable to reply to individual e-mails. Successful artists should hear back from us as by two months after the deadline.

Sunday, 10 February 2013

I hope I'm going to see some of you next weekend in Cork city. I have strong Cork connections, both through marriage and diluted blood so I am extra proud to have been chosen as one of the "Emerging Poets" reading on Saturday at 4pm in the Cork Arts Theatre. I will be alongside Cal Doyle, Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Kerrie O' Brien and Fiona Smith, as well as the winner of the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize, Judith Barrington, So if they do it alphabetically, I will be reading first. Don't be late or you will miss me! Details here

Any requests?There are lots of events for the festival. Details hereI am hoping to get down in time to see Carolyn Forché and Karen Solie, two Canadian poets on Friday.

I have a line in one of my poems about Canadians. Maybe I should read that one.

I wish i'd booked a place on the Saturday workshop with Carolyn Forché but I didn't and it's full. Then a craft talk with Karen Solie on Saturday early afternoon, 2.30pm. Håkan Sandell and Lyor Shternberg a Swedish and an Israeli poet after me at 7pm. Immanuel Mifsud and Tomaž Šalamun from Malta and Slovenia at 8.30pm. Finally greatly looking forward to Gwyneth Lewis, the national poet of Wales and the accomplished Kathryn Simmonds at 10pm.

I went to the festival a couple of years ago and had a lovely time. I particularly enjoyed the exposure to poets from abroad and in translation. These are all in the Cork Arts Theatre on Carrolls Quay.

Saturday, 9 February 2013

I have been thinking for a while about So What? poems. I went to a workshop facilitated by Fiona Sampson and she said, as an editor, she gets many poems sent that are beautiful words, well crafted but at the end of the day, she has to say "So What?"

My dog died. - So What?
I saw a lion - So What?
It's raining in Dublin - So What?

A poem should say something new, something that connects with the reader. It is sad that your dog died but how does that affect me? Why should I care in the long run? How would that make me rethink something I have always assumed?

I saw a lion.

You saw a lion, in a zoo, on a safari. I imagine it was magnificent but so what? You saw it and passed on.

I saw a lion eating a giraffe.

Slightly more interesting but still irrelevant to me, the reader.

I saw a golden maned lion gnawing on a dead giraffe.

More visual but...

I am a lion and I am eating a giraffe

Is there anything gained here from using the first person?

I saw a lion eating a giraffe and it reminded me of my brother when he was a teenager.

Hm...keep going...

I saw a lion eating a giraffe; it was like the butcher's shop on the high street

or

The lion's powerful paw held the giraffe down;it was the same size as the paperweight my father used to anchor his notes

OK, this isn't a poem, none of these is a poem but one may be the start. There has to be something in there to shake off the So What? question.

So What? is also relevant to short stories and other forms, radio pieces, plays, novels even.

Do you have pieces that you think do quite work and you can't quite put your finger on why? Try the So What? question.

Friday, 8 February 2013

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has a
scheme of grants for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual
artists, arts groups and arts organisations engaged in arts projects or events
at local or county level. Grants are also available to support the professional
development and arts practice of individual artists, arts groups and
organisations.

The prompt was "Becoming Something New." I ended up writing loads and cut back by about 30%. Recommended to tightend up any writing, losing the flab. Aren't we all into that?

My piece is first up, read wonderfully by Sorcha Kenny.Then there's some generous analysis by Dave Lordan.Stay listening to the end for extracts from Patrick O'Flaherty, Emma Dunne, Rob Doyle and Geraldine

and some thoughts on crime writing from Arlene Hunt.Then at the end, next month's prompt. Exercise your creative muscles and give it a go. 700 words. You don't have to send it in if you don't want to. Or use a pseudonym.Remember you're writing for radio. Read it out loud. Details here

Yesterday, I finished the last
poem for my new collection; I’d been tinkering with it for close on four days.
It’s an absolute cracker. The Japanese film crew who have been filming me for
the last six months, was delighted. It was rounds of sake and later a firework
display worthy of a royal birth.

I sent it on first to Stephen
Hawking and he gave it the thumbs up. Obama said it gave him the shivers and
Kathyrn Bigelow is begging me for the film rights. I’ll debut it tomorrow at my
Legion of Honour ceremony at the Elysee Palace. The president was very
insistent that I don’t cancel my appearance again. And I said, “Francois, you’re
pushing through that gay marriage legislation. It’s the least I can do.”

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Mariella Frostrup will chair the judging panel for the Award, one of the
most prestigious for a single short story, with the winning author
receiving £15,000. The runner-up receives £3,000 and three further
shortlisted authors £500 each.

The Award is now open for submissions from publishers, agents and
published authors from the UK.

Sunday, 3 February 2013

The lovely, hard working people at the Irish Writers Centre have teamed up with the Doolin Hotel to bring a new short story competition.

Prize fund: €1,000 for first place and second/third of €600/€400.

All
three winning entries will feature on the Irish Writers' website and the story
placed first will also appear in print in The Clare
People.

Entries
can be on any theme and should be no longer than 3,000 words.

The fee is €7

Deadline:Monday 8th April, 5pm.

Winners will be announced at
the inaugural Doolin Writer's Weekend on 24th - 26th May 2013.

John
McKenna is this year's judge: acclaimed author of seventeen books including
short-stories, novels, memoir, history and biography.

Doolin
Writers weekend will consist of workshops, lectures and readings by some of
Ireland's leading writers, as well as some great local traditional music. It is
a great opportunity for aspiring writers as well as literary fans and published
authors to get together and celebrate everything that is good about Irish
literature. This summer we look forward to welcoming back some of Ireland's best writers for
what we hope will become an annual literary event in North Clare.

Friday, 1 February 2013

The competition is free to enter, but submissions are limited to 2 per person.

Judging will be done by the editorial team of Playing Bingo, a number of
whom are published writers. We've also enlisted the help of award
winning novelist and short story writer Rachel Trezise to participate in the final judgement.

Prizes

We're offering a range of prizes for people taking part as follows:

1st Place - £300

2nd Place - £100

2 x Runner's Up Prizes - £50

All shortlisted entries will be collected and
published in an anthology for the shortlisted writers, as well as being
featured on this site in the Your Stories section.